The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-16
CHILDISH NEVADANS.

One OF the closing acts of the Ne
vada Legislature was the adoption for
submission to the people of proposed
Constitutional Amendment prohibiting
polygamy. 1t is true, the laws of the
State now declare polygamy felony,
and impose severe punishment on those
found guilty OF it. 1t is also true, that
polygamy is not pIactised in the State,
unless it be so secretly done that the
officers of the law are not able to dis
cover the guilty. 1t is not believed
there is any polygamy there; that is to
say, any Mormon polygamy, though
there is plenty of the other variety, if
the common rumor of the past thirty
wears is at all reliable. The popular
idea is that sexual immortality is the
rule rather than the exception in The
Sagebrush State. This proposed Con-
stitutionaI Amendment goes much
further than the prob bition of polyg-
amy, for it disfranchIses all who
preach or practice polygamy, all who
belong to q society or organization
which toIerates it, and all who are
members of an association which OK
ercises, or claims the right to exercise,
civil power conflicting with State or
United States laws. As a matter of
course, the amendment will be adopted
unconstitutional as it is, and will be-
come part of the fundamental law of
Nevada. Nobody viii contest it, be-
cause nobody is sufficiently interested
in the matter to go to the trouble of
making fight against the proposition.
1t is not difficult to divine the source
of the amendment. 1t emanated from
Utah, whence the Idaho test oath law
and the lately repealed test oath sta
tute of Arizona came; it is only an in
cident in the "plan OF campaign" de-
vlsed by the onti-Mormons But we
think the Nevada Legislature might have
spared itself the trouble of propos ing
this amendment, for there is not ne
sumption in the proposition that there
exists fear of an invasion and capture
of Nevada by Mormons, and the conse-
quent fastening OF polygamy upon the
State. What is now Nevada was at one
time part of Utah, and under the pc
litical control of Mormons, but there
were no regrets when the separation
took place, and there has never been
a day since when the people of Utah
grieved over the division. Further
more, there has never been a year,
when, if the Mormons had desired to
control Nevada politically, they could
not have done so. 1t would at any time
have been an easy matter to COLOMBO a
sufficient number of Mormons on the
other side of the border to assume and
exercise the balance of power, or for
that matter, to send over enodgh 10 put
all other parties combined in the mi
nority. There are 1900 voters in Ne
vada, or We're year or so ago.
But Utah was glad to be well rid of
the barren waste, and has never expert
enced the least desire to recover the
worthless area of mountains, desert
and sage brush. TIE task OF correct
ing the social and political morals of
the people over there, and of maintain
ing peace and honest government is
greater than the Mormons have ever
cared to undertake, keen as the Saints
are for asSaulting the evils of the world.
In this matter the sage brush law
makers are unnecessarily exciting
themselves, and putting themselves to
trouble for nothing. There is not the
slightest liability of an invasion from
Utah, and less probability that poly
gamy will be carried across the line. If
the Mofmons had desired Nevada
they would not have surrendered it, or
if they had wanted it since they would
nave taken it long ago.
NONE OF the interviewers has thought